Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Douglas Harding - 1

Finished reading "On Having No Head" (Douglas Harding)

I love Douglas Harding's work, as it presents a simple, direct way of looking that really does bypass much of the 'hard work' spiritual practices that usually end up short-circuiting people's attempts at liberation. DH had a nondual experience in no less an impressive environment than the Himalayas.. however, he doesn't leave his experience there, but rather attempted (throughout his whole life) to translate the experience into workable steps that anyone could experiment with and gain similar result.

Re: On Having No Head

Quite a revolutionary book at the time, DH sets the scene for a new
perspective which is deceptively simple, but also delivers to goods in
terms of getting a taste for a more unified perspective on life
(literally). He introduces the idea of 'having no head' and the
implications for directly experiencing this notion, which may (or may
not) lead to the same sort of 'thing' that much of the Zen pointing
literature aims at. This book is brief, and more of an introduction into
DH's 'Headless Way'. Some of the later books tackle the idea and
practice much more in depth. Still, this short book is worth the read,
and if the reader can grasp what is being pointed at, and actually put
it into practice, then a new way of seeing is definitely possible. One
of the most direct (and unique) methods within the nondual literature
set.